Villes du Futur, 1958-1966

This project, characteristic of an age marked by demographic explosion and the technology race, offers a vision for a “city of the future,” proposing the development of four hundred urban clusters measuring an average of three hundred meters in height and eight hundred meters in width. These monumental clusters, spaced approximately twenty kilometers apart, can contain up to 20,000 inhabitants. They are designed with housing as well as areas for economic activity and public buildings. To free a maximum of ground area and to avoid spoiling the view of these spectacular “city-sculptures” thrusting skyward, Marino di Teana planned to develop underground areas for communication and services. The diagram in the lower left corner of the painting presents a cross-section view of the underground tunnel. The different levels, signaled by letters, include arteries for vehicular traffic (A), corridors providing access to climate-controlled gardens (B), nuclear fall-out shelters (C), reserves for necessities (D), as well as a circulation network for a train running on pneumatic propulsion (E and F). Here, Marino di Teana offers a perfect demonstration of his “prospective” approach, blending the plastic sensitivity and the poetic vision of the sculptor with the futurological extrapolations of survivalist architecture.